Man arrested in connection with KFC shooting

A Cape Girardeau man faces felony charges of first-degree assault and armed criminal action in connection with a Dec. 1 shooting outside a fast-food restaurant.

Dennis L. Williams, 34, was arrested Thursday night in Boone County, Mo., after being identified as a suspect in the shooting.

Williams is accused of shooting a 20-year-old woman in the parking lot of the Cape Girardeau KFC, 2101 William St., just before 5 p.m. Dec. 1.

At the time, police reported the victim was sitting in the passenger seat of a vehicle outside the restaurant when someone fired three shots from another vehicle.

The woman was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police reported at the time. Another passenger in the car was not injured.

The Boone County Sheriff's Department, Columbia Police Department and Mustang Drug Task Force assisted in arresting Williams, the Cape Girardeau Police Department reported in a news release Friday.

Online court records show Williams has a criminal history dating to 1997, when he pleaded guilty and served 30 days in the county jail for stealing.

That same year, he pleaded guilty to marijuana possession and was sentenced to 90 days in the Missouri Department of Corrections, court records show.

In November 1998, he began serving a seven-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to two counts of forgery.

In December 2001, he was given a suspended sentence of 15 years in prison and placed on five years of probation after pleading guilty to robbery in November 1998. Online court records show his probation was extended, and he completed it in March 2009.

Online court records also show Williams pleaded guilty to driving while revoked in May, June and July 2009 and December 2011, serving 60 days in jail for the 2011 offense, and he faces charges of DWI, driving while revoked, failure to drive in a single lane, failure to use a seatbelt and marijuana possession in connection with a pair of cases from September and November of this year.

epriddy@semissourian.com

388-3642

Pertinent address:

2010 William St., Cape Girardeau, MO